Friday, May 1, 2009

Time for the May flowers...




ElanaJ over at Mindless Musings has posted a really fun writing prompt and it was the perfect distraction for us this afternoon. You can read her original post here, but basically you just have to write a short story that features a flower. If you decide to participate post a link in our comment section and we'll send them along to Elana for her to post on her blog at the end of the month.

Here's what we've come up with. I think it actually might turn into the start of our next project. It's an idea that we've been tossing around for a couple months now. Let us know what you think...

I was sheer perfection on stage. I’m not telling you this to show off or to brag, I’m stating it as fact. I was perfection. The bright lights of the packed stadium glinted off my bleach blonde hair. My lithe, teenage body was poured into a pair of leather pants so tight it took two assistants to get me into them and the silver sequins on my halter top flashed like beacons on the stage.

I danced, I sang, and I teased the audience with my come hither looks and lyrics. My body made promises my image would never let me keep. The diamond purity ring sparkled on my left hand, mocking the pubescent boys and their drooling fathers. My fans (primarily girls aged 9 – 12 with parents who had a combined income of over $150,000 according to the marketing geniuses who'd pretty much created me) were screaming louder, crying for more.

“Bingley! Bingley! Bingley!” They chanted. They all wanted a piece of me, but for entirely different reasons.

It was time for my slow song. You know, the one where I croon about still being a girl, about respecting myself enough to wait. If only my adoring little fans knew how many boys I’d seduced to this song. I could tell them stories about the heartthrobs whose posters hung on their walls that would probably put them off men for the rest of their lives. I’ve done things that would make their mothers weep and their older brothers beg for more.

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about me. I'm not a slut, really I’m not. But when you’ve spent your life pretending to be the poster girl for teenage abstinence and in reality you’re just a normal teenage girl longing to do all of the stupid things that normal teenagers get to do, you have to have some kind of outlet or you’ll go crazy. Britney crazy. And don’t worry, it's not like I was stupid. All of those crazy things I did were done under the protection of an iron-clad confidentiality agreement. My PR puppet-master made sure of it.

I was finally wrapping up my song and getting ready to take my bow, when I saw him. He was in the front row and had hair that was too long and hung in his eyes. His worn t-shirt was tight in all the right places and he had that goofy Midwestern farm boy look that totally made me crazy. I’ve been with lots of boys all over our beautiful country and I have to tell you that Midwestern farm boys are the best. They’re sweet and kind and they almost always know how to get a pair of skin-tight leather pants off of a pretty pop princess. Amazing how it takes two pairs of hands to get me into the things and only one strong pair to get me out.

I winked at him and gave my sister, who was waiting just off the side of the stage, a discreet nod. I’d found my man. She rolled her eyes at me and waved the pink peony she held in her hands like a white flag. I moved my hand to gesture for her to hurry up. Sometimes the cute ones left before I did my encore.

She disappeared back stage and I knew shortly, she’d emerge into the crowd to present the fat pink flower to my boyfriend du jour.

It was going to be another wild night.

24 comments:

Elana Johnson said...

Wow. Great start. Can I say I'm so jealous? I mean, come on. I can't start at the start! LOL. Good job!

Danyelle L. said...

Very nice!

Rebecca L Sutton said...

Love it!!!!

I have a rock star in my book, let me tell you how fun it is to write about someone super famous and sexy!

Awesome short story and to think it all started with a flower...yay!

Tess said...

Hi! Out blog hopping today and came across yours....I think I remember your story from MSFV and then your subsequent notice of agent-achieval (nice score, btw!). Anyway, great story here.

www.tesshilmo.blogspot.com

PurpleClover said...

*wistles* Me likey! I thought it was hot hot hot!

I just know a billion girls would bust down the doors at Borders to get their hands on this book. :)

Anonymous said...

I love this...and yes, it seems like a fun shiny new project!!! Enjoy!!!

Unknown said...

She has a very interesting perception about herself! Very intriguing beginning.

lisa and laura said...

Elana - Thanks! We owe it all to your prompt...I don't know when we ever would have started if we hadn't had that little push!

Windsong - Amazing how one prompt can create two totally different stories, right? I just read yours and loved it.

Rebecca - It IS fun to write about rockstars, isn't it?

Tess - Welcome! And we remember your story too! How could we forget With a Name Like Love?

P-Clo - Do you think it's too hot? We're worried it's over the top...we're not used to writing the sexy stuff!

Christine - We're hoping it will be a good distraction...we're thinking of writing the first Act and then sending it over to Catherine. We'll see how it goes.

Janyece - I know, she's a little full of herself, right? It's sort of over the top, but that's Bingley. It's nice to blame things on characters, isn't it?

Danyelle L. said...

Thank you. :)

I love how artists can use the same medium (in this case, prompts) and come up with something totally unique. The bibliophile inside of me is content knowing we will never run out of things to read. :D

Kimberly Derting said...

I think you two play all we're-worried-it's-over-the-top, but secretly you're closet erotica writers...you're just a few clicks away from adding the words "throbbing shaft" to everything you write!

lisa and laura said...

Kimberly - You found us out! We didn't want to spoil it for anyone, but the new title for the Kate Lowery Mystery is actually The Secret of the Throbbing Shaft. We think it's going to have a lot of MG appeal.

lisa and laura said...

And how much you want to bet we start getting hits from people googling "throbbing shaft" now that it's appeared in our comments 3 times over.

Thank you for that Kimberly.

Kimberly Derting said...

Mission accomplished! I can go now...

Shelli (srjohannes) said...

i love it!!! i could totally picture it

how old is she? - sounded older like 18 ish to me.

rhetorical question - is there a way to make her sound experienced with sex and boys yet not permiscuious?

Since so much negativity has gone down with britney's rep - audience may be more inclinced to sympathsize with girl who is singing but cant stand the guys who think she's fast.

do you want to sex girl who pretends to be straight laced ( i think this is what it is?)

or

do you want the straight-laced that pretends to be all convident and sexy but is really insecure with what she wears. ( I am wondering if girl's would identify with this more)

Just a thought i threw out there! :) have i said too much 0 ill shut up now. ;)

Rock on!

lisa and laura said...

Hmm..Shelli interesting points to consider. Our initial thought was to give her a Jo Bros/Miley Cyrus type image, and then have her be rebelling against that image by sleeping around a bit. The good news is that she's going to have a sister who doesn't buy into any of it, not the image of the purity rings, not the boys, none of it. Our plan is to alternate their POV's throughout the book. SO we're thinking the gals will identify with the non-pop star sister more than the pop tart herself. We'll see...

Thanks for reading and for the fab feedback! Always appreciated!

lisa and laura said...

And yes, she's older. 17 or 18. Her sister will be younger 15 or 16 we're thinking.

Little Ms J said...

I love it! I bet Britney and Miley will buy it.

XiXi said...

Is this just a short story or a part of something bigger? I really enjoyed it! Very creative.

XiXi said...

Oh PS, as lame as this is, I was definitely thinking about Miley while reading, haha.

Katie Anderson said...

WHOA! What a start! Luuuuvvvvvv it!!!!!!

Katie Anderson said...

Okay, I just read the comments and laughed out loud at Kimberly's "Throbbing shaft!"

Lisa said...

Icy Roses - We're thinking that it's going to be the start of our next novel. Although usually whatever we start with ends up being edited beyond recognition by the time we're done with it. But hey it's a start, right? And Miley is definitely part of our inspiration for this character. I mean wouldn't you love to know what she's REALLY like?

Katie - Ha! Kimberly has single handedly elevated our blog rating to R. We used to be totally PG. It all comes back to her deal with the devil...I mean it's the only explanation for her youthful glow. I bet she's got the same deal as SF's mom.

Suzette Saxton said...

What lovely flowers! I just listed myself as a follower of your blog - I can't believe I didn't do so sooner as I've been reading your blog for several months.

Suzy

lisa and laura said...

Suzy - Thanks for the follow! We are still sort of figuring out how to follow people, yeah, we're techologically challenged. I know it should be easy, but the only option blogger ever gives me is to "friend" a person and I'm not sure that's right. SO if anyone is offended that we're not following you and yet we stalk your blog daily, now you know why.

LMJ - I somehow missed your comment...I'm losing it, I think. Thanks for reading and something tells me Brit and Miley might not appreciate our interpretation of the pop tart. Or maybe they would...our MC is awfully misunderstood.

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